Angus Brown and Nhan Le Are Back With 8 Arm

First Octopus Bar, then Lusca, now 8 Arm. Angus Brown and Nhan Le’s latest project named for a tentacled sea creature officially opens this Wednesday, August 31, at 6 p.m. The morning-to-late-night restaurant sets up shop in Virginia-Highland at 710 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE.

Opening day will offer dinner service only, but 8 Arm is scheduled to be fully operational on Thursday. Service will take different forms throughout the day.

• Breakfast begins at 7 a.m. Pastry chef Sarah Dodge, formerly of Octopus Bar, Lusca, Little Tart Bakeshop, and Preserving Place, will serve up dishes such as English muffin sandwiches with soft scrambled eggs, avocado, and cheddar and bagels with smoked salmon, capers, red onion, cream cheese, and lemon. Matt Mullins, another Lusca alum, will run the coffee program.
• Lunch runs until 3 p.m. Look for a little gem salad with buttermilk, grapefruit, and herbs; tuna melt on rye with albacore, cheddar, and mustard; and grain bowl with soft egg, rancho gordo, cilantro, salsa molcajete, and Decimal Place cheddar.
• At dinner, from 6 p.m. to midnight, Brown takes over the kitchen. He’ll serve an eight-item menu that focuses on vegetables. Dishes include lady peas with brodo di pollo (that’s Italian chicken soup) and bitter greens; carnival squash with pecorino, garlic, and parsley; tagliatelle with English peas, mint, and blue crab; and lamb porterhouse with leeks, eggplant, and tomato.
• It won’t be in service initially, but a patio bar will eventually serve until 2:30 a.m.
• 8 Arm’s breakfast and lunch will be available seven days a week. Dinner and bar service are set for Monday through Saturday.

Brown and Le, along with business partners Skip Engelbrecht and Jeff Jurgena, designed the space. A wrap-around counter adorned with bright-orange tile will seat breakfast and lunch diners, and table service will be available for dinner. The outdoor bar is contained inside a repurposed shipping container.

Once 8 Arm is open, Brown and Le will look ahead to their next venture: Ama. The small, seafood-centric restaurant is currently on track to open around the corner early next year.

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